Africa’s first floating liquified natural gas plant has arrived in Mozambique and gas production is on track to begin in the second half of the year. The Coral South project is the first of a few planned projects which will exploit a significant gas find in the offshore Rovuma Basin.
The Coral Sul FLNG embarked on its voyage from South Korea on 15 November and entered Mozambiquan waters on 3 January.
After a seven-week voyage, Africa’s first-ever deep-sea floating Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility has entered Mozambican waters, marking a major milestone ahead of imminent production from an offshore gas field.
According to Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute, the floating plant, known as the Coral Sul FLNG arrived in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin.
The plant is critical to the $7 billion (about R110 billion) Coral South project which is operated by Italian oil and gas company Eni as it will produce and sell gas extracted from the southern part of the field.
The 220 000 ton vessel is the first FLNG built for deep waters and the first specifically built for Africa. With 432 meters in length and 66 meters width, the plant has the capacity to liquefy 3.4 million tons of natural gas per year.
It will be linked to six subsea gas producing wells, with its LNG earmarked to be sold exclusively to BP under a 20-year offtake agreement signed in 2016.
The Coral South project will see Eni providing specialist training for more than 800 Mozambican workers, who will be employed in the project’s operational phase.
The company said it has committed to a “huge programme of work” for local communities to improve their access to basic services such as education, clean water and health care, while supporting long-term, diversified, sustainable socio-economic growth.
Coral South is one of a number of energy projects located in the Rovuma basin.
Also under construction is TotalEnergies’ substantially larger $20 billion Mozambique LNG project. Work is yet to resume after the site was evacuated in March last year as a result of nearby Islamic State terrorist attacks.
